Teaching, Learning & the Profession

Name: Margaret BrowerSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: margaret.tbrower@gmail.comProfessional Status: Graduate StudentInstitution: University of ChicagoScheduling Preference: No PreferenceProposal Type: RoundtableParticipation Type: PanelistRoundtable Title: Supporting Data-Driven Student Political Learning and Engagement during and after an Election SeasonRoundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.Paper Title:Panel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:

Name: Nicholas BuccolaSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: nicholasbuccola@gmail.comProfessional Status: Associate ProfessorInstitution: Linfield CollegeScheduling Preference: Saturday AfternoonProposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: Teaching about FreedomPanel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:In this paper, I reflect on my experiences teaching about freedom as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities "Enduring Questions" program. My central question in the essay is: when teaching about an essentially contested political concept like freedom, should we assign texts that are primarily focused on the meaning of that concept or should we assign great books that are not explicitly about the concept with the idea that they might have something to teach us (indirectly) about the concept we are seeking to understand? In the paper, I draw on my experiences teaching "What is Freedom?" twice on my campus in order to argue for the latter approach (with some caveats).

Name: Anita ChadhaSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: chadhaa@uhd.eduProfessional Status: Associate ProfessorInstitution: University of Houston, Downtown.Scheduling Preference: Friday MorningProposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: Virtual Classrooms: Analyzing student and instructor collaborative experiencesPanel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:Virtual courses create a self-directed learning environment for students. Given that online environments provide anonymity so that the emphasis is on the content, rather than on the form of the message or the identity of the sender (Herring, 1993) this study assesses students’ personal usages in an online collaboration across several states and semesters. In examining the student and instructor perspective, the findings are significant in that, students engage in reflective work employing academic quality discussions across varying institution types from community colleges to public and private universities and that their discussions occur without gender or question type biases. Semester-end surveys confirm that an asynchronous e-learning collaboration enhanced their educational experience and they belonged to a global community of learners. This study adds its significant findings about the growth of online discussions promoting and enhancing the experience of e-learners and collaborative endeavors. This research is a culmination of years of experience with online collaborations on American Politics. The collaboration can certainly be used by those in similar subjects and fields.

Name: Christopher CookSection:Professional Email: ccook@pitt.eduProfessional Status: Assistant ProfessorInstitution: University of Pittsburgh at JohnstownScheduling Preference:Proposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: One Man's Freedom Fighter on Film is Another Man's Terrorist During Classroom DiscussionPanel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:This paper is an examination of the pedagogical benefits and challenges of using films to teach a course on terrorism. Students in the 21st Century are more likely to be visual learners. But showing a film in the course is not as simple as pressing play. The three films selected help visually elaborate on concepts and theories made throughout the course: Battle of Algiers (1966, dir. Pontecorvo) about the war for Algerian independence; Paradise Now (2005, dir. Abu-Assad) about Palestinian suicide bombers; and In the Name of the Father (1993, dir. Sheridan) about the problematic between fighting terrorism and civil liberties. None of the films chosen are American. Two of them are not even in English. This paper will also discuss pedagogy of using film, teaching strategies in how to screen them properly as well as explore the unintended consequences these films have produced in my classroom discussion. It is important to remember that for many students terrorism has become exclusively defined by the Islamic jihadist extremism. Students will try to see these films through this 9/11 filter. However, I argue that is shown properly these films can become a powerful way to provoke deeper classroom discussion and understanding.

Name: Michele DeeganSection:Professional Email: deegan@muhlenberg.eduProfessional Status: Associate ProfessorInstitution: Muhlenberg CollegeScheduling Preference: Friday MorningProposal Type:Participation Type: PanelistRoundtable Title: Supporting Data-Driven Student Political Learning and Engagement during and after an Election SeasonRoundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.
Paper Title:Panel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.
Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:

Name: Danielle GougonSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: gougon@rowan.eduProfessional Status: Assistant ProfessorInstitution: Rowan UniversityScheduling Preference: Friday MorningProposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: Professional Pressure: An analysis of how political science is responding to calls to professionalize the discipline. Panel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:What are you going to do with that major? Higher education in the U.S. is under pressure to demonstrate the ways in which it is preparing undergraduate students for the workforce. Professional development is no longer a task reserved for the campus career center or counselor; disciplines, and their respective faculty, are increasingly being asked to integrate specific career training and skill building into their curricula and courses, often with little or no guidance in how to accomplish this task. This paper seeks to understand what political science is doing as a field to respond to the most recent call to “professionalize” the discipline. The paper will begin by providing a macro-level survey of “the state of the discipline” and assess the ways in which leading political science organizations (such as APSA) and journals are addressing professional development of undergraduates. The paper will also provide a micro-level analysis of initiatives taken by individual departments and programs which might provide guidance on best practices for integrating professional development into our own programs.

Name: Edward KammererSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: efkjr@alumni.umass.eduProfessional Status: Adjunct ProfessorInstitution: Northeastern UniversityScheduling Preference: Saturday MorningProposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: Undergraduate Moot Court: Student Perceptions and PerspectivesPanel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:Role playing, either through games or simulations, is a common form of instruction in political science courses (See Asal and Blake 2006; Hensley 1993). Role playing has been used to study everything from legislative behavior, international negotiation, law, elections, and many other political science topics. In a course, simulations can encourage student participation, enhance learning, and provide students with a practical understanding of the real world application of often abstract course material and concepts (McCarthy 2014; Shellman and Turan 2006). Active learning also helps students who do not always respond well to more traditional lecture style teaching. Simulations are both active and problem-focused which encourages critical thinking and synthesis of ideas rather than absorbing information from a lecture (See Archer and Miller 2011).
The classroom is not, however, the only opportunity for students to engage in this type of hands-on learning. Intercollegiate competitions offer an additional opportunity for dedicated students to continue their education outside the classroom and explore a topic or skill in great detail. Like in-class simulations, these competitions can take a variety of forms. Some of the more well-known intercollegiate simulations include model United Nations, mock trial, and moot court. Each of these involves different skills and focuses on different parts of the legal and political system.
This paper examines the growing field of intercollegiate moot court, focusing on the perceptions of the students who participate in it. As an extracurricular activity, participation is voluntary and can be quite time consuming. The main research questions that this paper seeks to answer are:
What types of students participate in undergraduate moot court?
How do the participants in an undergraduate moot court view their experience?
What motivates students to participate in intercollegiate moot court?
To answer this, I conducted a web-based survey of students who competed in at least one regional, qualifying tournament sponsored by the American Collegiate Moot Court Association. This survey consisted of demographic questions (major, class year, school type, etc.) and questions designed to determine why students participate and what students believe they are gaining from their participation. I received 66 responses. Moot Court provides students with critical thinking and public speaking skills. Students report their desire to join moot court comes mostly from academic, not career, focused goals. Most interestingly, 12 of the respondents had already begun (or in some cases completed) law school. Unanimously these 12 respondents said that moot court helped them succeed in law school. The student perception of moot court is that it provides solid educational benefit and has a real impact on their future success.

Name: Nina KasniunasSection:Professional Email: nina.kasniunas@goucher.eduProfessional Status: Associate ProfessorInstitution: Goucher CollegeScheduling Preference:Proposal Type:Participation Type: PanelistRoundtable Title: Supporting Data-Driven Student Political Learning and Engagement during and after an Election Season Roundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.Paper Title:Panel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:

Name: Brian MelloSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: bmello@muhlenberg.eduProfessional Status: Associate ProfessorInstitution: Muhlenberg CollegeScheduling Preference: No PreferenceProposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: Contingency and Emotion: Simulating Protest and Revolution in the Middle EastPanel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:This paper explores insights from a recent experience exposing undergraduates at Muhlenberg College to paired history and political science courses on protest and revolution in the Middle East. Student developed simulations of key moments of protest were designed to engage students in an active learning setting and a shared assignment across both courses. The most interesting result of this project, from my teaching perspective, was its unanticipated ability to expose students to the contingency and emotion that scholarship has recently emphasized as critical to understanding social movements, but which so often falls out of political science analyses of protest and revolution. Throughout the paper I explore the simulation assignment, how student groups designed the simulations with limited guidance from instructors, how students took on the assigned roles, and how the engagement in the simulations complicated the political science analyses that formed the bedrock of our course readings. To advance the analysis I draw both on student qualitative assessments of the course and student reflections on the simulations that were included in group papers.

Name: Vanessa RugetSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: vruget@gmail.comProfessional Status: Associate ProfessorInstitution: Salem State UniversityScheduling Preference: No PreferenceProposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: Experiential philanthropy and the First Year Seminar: a case study at Salem State University Panel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:Experiential philanthropy --enabling students to act as philanthropists and to engage in charitable giving-- is becoming increasingly popular on college campuses (Campbell 2014, Olberding, 2012). Not only are today’s college students eager to be “socially responsible;” many are also attracted to a career in the nonprofit sector. Studies have shown that this pedagogy helps students learn the material and apply course concepts but also that it increases their likelihood to later engage in charitable giving, volunteering, and service (Olberding, Nekirk, & Ng 2010).
My paper reflects on an effort to weave experiential philanthropy in a fall 2016 First-Year Seminar on global poverty at Salem State University--a four year institutions with a high level of first generation, commuter students. In particular, it seeks to assess whether a philanthropy assignment can help students reach one of the First Year Seminar goals: developing relationships and practices that will support their success in college.

Name: Edward SidlowSection:Professional Email: esidlow@emich.eduProfessional Status: Full ProfessorInstitution: Eastern Michigan UniversityScheduling Preference: No PreferenceProposal Type:Participation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: A Funhouse of Mirrors: Politics, Sports and Music since World War II Panel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:A Funhouse of Mirrors: Politics, Sports, and Music since World War II
This paper focuses on the development of an undergraduate course and an accompanying resource guide aimed at addressing two time-tested complaints. For faculty who claim that students have no sense of history, and for students who claim that faculty seem to talk about politics in a vacuum, welcome to American Politics, Sports, and Music: World War II to the Present.
The project design weaves together music, politics, and sports in each decade of the postwar period in a way that the Baby Boom generation may take for granted, but today’s undergraduates know little about. For example, the seeds of the civil rights movement were sown in the 1940s as Truman integrated the Armed Forces through executive order, Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball, and Nat King Cole scored a billboard number one with “Nature Boy.” Much of the music of the 1950s mirrored a yearning for postwar stability, as those who donned gray flannel hummed along to Doris Days’ “Que Sera, Sera,” Debbie Reynolds’ “Tammy,” or Pat Boone’s “Love Letters in the Sand.” But McCarthyism and the beginnings of the Cold War were also a part of this period, while the political and cultural shifts that were reflected in the popularity of Elvis Presley were foreshadowing the turbulence of the 1960s. Assassinations, civil unrest, and the escalation of Vietnam were chronicled by the Greenwich Village folkies. That music would soon give way to the harder edge of psychedelia. Baseball—the pastoral national pastime—was challenged by professional football for supremacy. Such changes in music and sport reflected the advent of a much more contentious political environment.
My preliminary use of politics-music-sports intersections in introductory courses has received positive student feedback. The purpose of the current project is to expand the design so that it becomes a framework for a course that allows for more in-depth treatment of these topics as they relate to one another and also helps students learn the “stories” of American politics in a way that is not only meaningful but engaging. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this instructional approach and to get feedback from colleagues at other colleges and universities as I develop the annotated course syllabus and an accompanying resource guide of discography, films and documentaries, and suggested readings.

Name: Rick SwansonSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: ras2777@louisiana.eduProfessional Status: Associate ProfessorInstitution: University of Louisiana--LafayetteScheduling Preference: No PreferenceProposal Type: PaperParticipation Type:Roundtable Title:Roundtable Description:Paper Title: Teaching the Legal Skill of Issue Spotting in the Undergraduate Pre-Law ClassroomPanel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description:Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract:This paper offers guidance on how to teach the legal skill of issue spotting in the undergraduate pre-law classroom. Pre-law education poses particular challenges precisely because skills are being taught in addition to knowledge. Fundamental legal skills include case briefing, Issue-Rule-Application-Conclusion (IRAC) analysis, and issue spotting, where the analyzer must identify potential legal issues hidden in a complex set of facts. Because these skills are learned through doing, pre-law education requires that students practice rather than merely memorize. Student practice of the skill of issue spotting can occur in the traditional face-to-face classroom, but can occur more efficiently if aided by the use of online education (a.k.a. distance learning). Particularly, a hybrid (a.k.a. blended) classroom allows both in-person and online education to occur simultaneously. In regard to the skill of issue-spotting, in-class presentations and practice of issue spotting can be supplemented by online resources. Such online resources can include additional issue spotting explanations and examples, terms and concepts quizzes, grading rubrics of issue spotting answers, discussion forums with ungraded issue spotting practice opportunities, both peer feedback and instructor feedback of online issue spotting practice, extra credit and/or graded issue spotting, and plagiarism-checking software to review students’ online submitted answers. This paper discusses these techniques as well as the strengths and challenges surrounding them based on the author’s personal experience teaching the skill of issue spotting in undergraduate pre-law education using hybrid/blended online learning.

Name: Nancy ThomasSection: Teaching, Learning & the ProfessionProfessional Email: nancy.thomas@tufts.eduProfessional Status:Institution: Tufts UniversityScheduling Preference:Proposal Type:Participation Type: PanelistRoundtable Title: Supporting Data-Driven Student Political Learning and Engagement during and after an Election SeasonRoundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.Paper Title:Panel Title:Panel Description:Roundtable Description: This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share data from the National Study for Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) on college student registration and voting, broken down by demographics and field of study, from 2012 and 2014. They will also share the findings from a large qualitative study on the attributes of and promising practices of a robust campus climate, beyond the election season, for political learning and engagement in democracy. Professor Deegan of Muhlenberg College will then This roundtable will feature the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education's (IDHE) mixed method research on college student political engagement. During the roundtable, the director and a researcher from the Institute will share how the College uses the NSVLE report and supports institutional programs that generate institutional interest in the election and political issues. The director and researcher of IDHE will then share qualitative data on best institutional practices for engaging college students in democracy. Professor Kasiniunas will then elaborate on Goucher college practices, specifically those the support a political engaged climate. These experiences will inform a discussion with roundtable participants around best practices during and after an election for engaging college students in political learning and engagement.Co-author info:Co-presenter info:Abstract: